Mixing Essential Oils for Magic: Aromatic Alchemy for Personal Blends (8 page)

cedarwood (
Virginia
): cypress, juniper

cypress: cedarwood, pine

fir (
balsam
): cedarwood (
Atlas
), juniper, pine

fir (
silver
): juniper, pine

juniper: cedarwood, fir, pine

pine: cypress, fir, juniper, spruce

spruce: cedarwood (
Atlas
), pine

While this chapter detailed a few botanical families, you may consider exploring a

smaller one on your own if you are drawn to particular group of oils. This method is a good way to learn about the individual oils as well as their family characteristics.

Sample Blend

This recipe comes from the
Lamiaceae
family and contains lavender, marjoram, and rosemary. These are all associated with psychic abilities and focusing the mind as well as bal-46 Blending by Botanical Family

ance, which is helpful when engaging in this work. I have also found that this is good for clearing away negativity in general.

Psychic Purification Blend

Lavender (
true
): 4 drops

Rosemary: 3 drops

Marjoram: 3 drops

As you expand your collection of oils you may find it rewarding to come back to this method especially if members of a particular family appeal to you. Now we’re ready to move on to the more complex method of blending by scent groups, which will include all of the oils represented in this book.

C H A P T E R 4

Blending by Scent Group

Just as essential oils from the same botanical family blend well together, they also mix nicely within scent groups. Also called fragrance groups and fragrance families, there are a number of ways that scents have been classified into groups—some more complex than others. Let’s take a look at a few of them.

Fragrance Classifications

As previously mentioned, Carl Linnaeus revolutionized and standardized the classification of plants according to physical structure and development. He didn’t stop there and went on to categorize their odors as well. His focus, however, was on their medicinal value as he placed them into the seven categories of foul, fragrant, garlicky, goaty, musky, nauseat-ing, and spicy.14 These names are not what I would call inspirational for blending scents.

German psychologist Hans Henning (1885-1946) called his system of classification the smell prism, which was based on what he believed were the six principle odors. In 1927 the American psychologists Ernest Crocker and Lloyd Henderson related their odor square to four kinds of olfactory nerves.

Coming from a totally different viewpoint and purpose, Eugene Rimmel (1820–1887),

eminent perfumer of London and Paris, laid out his 18 classifications of scents in
The Book
of Perfumes
. Although some of his categories seem rather specific and limited, they actually 14. Gilbert,
What the Nose Knows
, 18

47

48 Blending by Scent Group

contain more than the named scent. For example, the category he calls violet also includes cassie and orris root. Today, the perfumery categories can vary widely and sometimes an explanation is necessary. For example, the category called green generally includes herbs, mints, and pine; oriental includes heady spices as well as some resinous scents;
chypre
(French for cypress) includes woodsy/mossy scents; and
fougere
(French for fern) includes lighter herb/fern scents. More recent perfumery categories are entitled fruity,
gourmand
(an edible food smell), and aquatic, or oceanic which accommodates synthetic fragrances.15

In addition to the square and prism shapes applied to categories, the circle is inter-preted as a fragrance wheel. Developed by perfume aficionado Michael Edwards in the

early 1980s, the wheel places
fougere
at the center and arranges the four categories of floral, fresh, oriental, and woody around the outside. These four categories are further divided into three or four sub-groups.

As you may have guessed by now, scents can be rather subjective and there is no uni-

versal, definitive classification system for them. However, through my studies I found a method for categorizing scents that offers a simple, straightforward blending guide. This is the set of six scent groups recommended by aromatherapist, author, and lecturer Julia Lawless.16 Illustrated in Figure 4.1, the groups consist of woody (woodsy, earthy), herbaceous, citrus, floral, resinous, and spicy. In a number cases, these groups actually describe something about the plants or plant parts within the categories. Like Michael Edwards’

groups, these work well as a wheel, which helps to show their interrelationships. I also like this approach because what Pagan doesn’t like the symbolism of working with a circle?

In addition, displaying the scent groups as a circle brings out the dynamic nature of this blending method. Another reason I like these categories is that they honor and stay true to the natural world more so than other classifications.

Three Ways to Blend by Scent Group

There are three ways to use the scent groups. The first is single-group blending, which works because the members within each group tend to have similar chemical compositions and go well with each other. As a result, most of the florals blend well together as do the spices, citrus, and other groupings. As the name implies, select all of your oils from 15. Groom,
The New Perfume Handbook
, 262

16. Lawless,
Illustrated Encyclopedia of Essential Oils
, 44

Blending by Scent Group 49

one group. When blending by scent group, three oils usually work best as incorporating more tends to get tricky and can bog things down.

Woody

Spicy

Herbaceous

Resinous

Citrus

Floral

Figure 4.1 The scent group circle.

As with blending by botanical family, working with the smaller scent groups may re-

quire us to be more creative in how we express our intentions. On the other hand, scent groups can also provide extra focus for certain powers. For example, the citrus group is especially supportive of psychic work, divination, and communicating with the spirit realm.

The floral group is especially helpful for creativity, the emotions, love, and spirituality. If you find that a scent group is limited for expressing your intentions, you might still find it useful for blending a ritual perfume or creating a deity offering.

Table 4.1 Essential Oils and Their Scent Groups

Woody

amyris, birch, cajeput, cedarwood, cypress, eucalyptus (
blue gum
), fir,

juniper, oakmoss, patchouli, pine, sandalwood, spikenard, spruce,

valerian, vetiver

50 Blending by Scent Group

Table 4.1 Essential Oils and Their Scent Groups (continued)

Herbaceous angelica, basil, carrot, catnip, citronella, clary sage, helichrysum,

hyssop, labdanum, lavender (
spike
), marjoram, mugwort, niaouli,

oregano, parsley, peppermint, rosemary, sage, savory, spearmint,

tagetes, tea tree, thyme, yarrow

Citrus

bergamot, eucalyptus (
lemon
), grapefruit, lemon, lemon balm,

lemongrass, lime, litsea, mandarin, orange

Floral

cananga, chamomile, geranium, jasmine, lavender (
true
), lavandin,

neroli, palmarosa, rose, ylang-ylang

Resinous

camphor, frankincense, galbanum, myrrh, opopanax, storax

Spicy

allspice, anise, bay, benzoin, caraway, cardamom, celery, cassia,

cinnamon, clove, coriander, cumin, dill, elemi, fennel, galangal, ginger,

hops, lovage, myrtle, nutmeg, pepper, petitgrain, snakeroot, star anise,

tarragon, turmeric

Once you have selected and purchased your oils, follow the steps as laid out in Chapter 2 to create your aromatic treasure. This will be the same for all of the blending methods as the actual steps for mixing and assessing remain the same. It is the planning and selecting of oils that differs. As with botanical families, when you purchase a new oil you may want to label it with the name of its scent group as well. This makes it easier when you are planning new blends or gathering your oils for mixing.

The second way of using scent groups is what I call good neighbor blending. As this name implies, each group mixes well with members from its neighboring groups. The

woody oils go with the spicy and herbaceous oils, the citrus with herbaceous and floral oils. All around the circle, each group blends well with its neighbor on either side.

Blending by Scent Group 51

Woody

Spicy

Herbaceous

Resinous

Citrus

Floral

Figure 4.2 Good neighbor blending by scent groups.

When blending this way, select your three oils from two groups at a time. For exam-

ple, woody and spicy or woody and herbaceous. That said, remember these methods are

simple guidelines. Once you are familiar with your oils and you feel that combining spicy, woody, and herbaceous scents would create a good blend, go for it.

The third way of using scent groups is to select an oil from an opposite group. As you can see in Figure 4.3, these are not quite straightforward. The woody and floral groups and the spicy and citrus groups are directly opposite in the circle and these combinations work nicely. However, although herbaceous and resinous are opposites and some of their members go well together, this pairing of groups does not always work as well as the others. Even though they are not opposites, the pairing of the spicy and floral tends to work well. Using one of your three oils from an opposite group adds interest to a blend and opens the door for a wide variety of possibilities.

52 Blending by Scent Group

Woody

Spicy

Herbaceous

Resinous

Citrus

Floral

Figure 4.3 Opposite group blending.

The following tables provide information on which oils are known for working partic-

ularly well together. These details are offered to help you get started and not to limit selection. Gaps in the tables where my experience and research did not find a match does not mean that a combination does not work. Let your intuition and imagination guide you.

Table 4.2 The Woody Scent Group

Woody

Within the

Neighboring Groups

Opposite Group

Scent

Woody Group

Spicy Herbaceous

Floral

amyris

cedarwood,

coriander,

citronella

lavandin,

oakmoss

ginger

palmarosa

birch

juniper, pine

benzoin,

rosemary

jasmine,

clove

ylang-ylang

cajeput

cedarwood

clove

labdanum,

geranium,

niaouli

lavender (
true
)

Blending by Scent Group 53

Table 4.2 The Woody Scent Group (continued)

Woody

Within the

Neighboring Groups

Opposite Group

Scent

Woody Group

Spicy Herbaceous

Floral

cedarwood

amyris,

cardamom,

clary sage,

jasmine, lavender

(
Atlas
)

cypress, vetiver

ginger

rosemary,

(
true
), palmarosa

yarrow

cedarwood

amyris,

benzoin,

carrot,

lavender (
true
),

(
Virginia
)

patchouli

ginger

citronella

palmarosa

cypress

juniper, pine

benzoin,

clary sage,

lavandin,

cardamom

marjoram

palmarosa

eucalyptus (
blue

cajeput,

anise

sage

lavender (
true
)

gum
)

cedarwood,

(
Spanish
),

pine

mugwort,

thyme

fir (
balsam
)

cedarwood,

benzoin,

lavender

lavender (
true
)

cypress, juniper

tarragon

(
spike
)

fir (
silver
)

cedarwood,

tarragon

labdanum,

lavender (
true
)

pine

marjoram

juniper

cypress, vetiver benzoin, elemi

clary sage,

geranium,

rosemary

lavender (
true
)

oakmoss

vetiver

anise, bay,

clary sage,

palmarosa,

ginger

tea tree

ylang-ylang

patchouli

cedarwood,

clove,

angelica,

geranium,

sandalwood

snakeroot

labdanum

lavender (
true
),

rose

pine

cajeput, juniper

celery, hops

sage, savory

lavandin,

lavender (
true
)

sandalwood

patchouli,

clove, pepper

clary sage,

jasmine, lavender,

vetiver

labdanum

palmarosa

spikenard

oakmoss,

clove, dill

labdanum,

geranium, rose

patchouli, pine

lavender

(
spike
)

54 Blending by Scent Group

Table 4.2 The Woody Scent Group (continued)

Woody

Within the

Neighboring Groups

Opposite Group

Scent

Woody Group

Spicy Herbaceous

Floral

spruce

cedarwood,

benzoin

lavender

lavandin,